PESHAWAR (APP): The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly was informed on Monday that according to a survey conducted by Benazir Income Support Programme 2021, 4.7 million children of ages of five to sixteen years are out of school in the province, out of which 2.9 million are girls. This was told in an adjournment motion of Mir Kalam Wazir Independent that was admitted for debate. He said that out of 4.7 million children one million belong to merged districts and 74.4 percent of them are girls and 38.5 percent are boys.
He said that 66 percent of children in North Waziristan are out of schools, 63 percent in Bajaur, 61 percent in South Waziristan, 51 percent in Mohmand and Khyber each, 47 percent in Kurram and Orakazai each.
In response to the adjournment motion, the Minister for Higher Education Kamran Bangash said that the provincial government is taking measures to improve literacy rate in the province and has started enrollment drives. He supported the admission of the adjournment motion for detailed debate to get the opinion of the House in this regard.
Later, the Deputy Speaker Mahmood Jan put the motion to vote and the house admitted for debate.
Similarly, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly also admitted a privilege motion of Nighat Yasmin Orakzai of PPP against the Secretary Transport. Nighat Orkazai said that the provincial assembly had passed the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Employees of Transport Department Regularization of Service Act 2022 on May 30, 2022, but the Provincial Secretary Transport is not accepting it. She alleged that he has opposed and issued instructions to the Director Transport on September 7, 2022 that the said despite the passage of the act passed by the house the employees of department would not be regularized, which is tantamount to the breaching of the privilege of the whole house. She stressed for handing over of the motion to the privilege committee of the house and till the final ruling on the motion the secretary concerned should be made OSD.
The Minister for Transport, Shah Muhammad said that the assembly is supreme and asked the chair to put the motion to vote. After approval from the house the privilege motion was referred to the relevant committee of the house.
Expressing concern over the continuous increase in sexual abuse of children and girls in the province, the opposition benches demanded that laws are made in the assembly but they are not implemented. The unrest in the province has become a big threat to the government.
Despite the claims that it is the responsibility of the police to prevent incidents of sexual violence, we have failed to achieve the goals.
Nighat Orakzai in her adjournment motion, while starting the discussion, said that children were sexually assaulted on routine basis.
She said that the police impose such sections in FIR that the accused get release order from the court easily. Referring to the incident of Badhber Peshawar held on September 16, 2022 when a 23-year-old girl was killed and her body was found after three days from bushes. Kidnapping and killing incidents were reported on daily basis in the province.
Nighat said that 11 cases of women abduction were reported in August, 16 children were abducted. Similarly, 11 raped cases were also reported in July, 17 were subjected to domestic violence and 32 children were sexually assaulted.
MPA Shaukat Ali was attacked and the accused have not been traced till date. There is a need to review the Police Act, said Nighat.
Mir Kalam said that it is the responsibility of the police to deal with these incidents, but the government should take it seriously and make reforms in police, especially in merged districts.
MPA Inayatullah Khan of Jamaat-e-Islami said that our region is a hotbed of international conspiracies where the negative effects of neighboring countries are also being felt. The unrest in the province is a big threat to the government.
He said that people have come out for peace in Swat, the native region of the chief minister Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. On this occasion, the quorum was pointed out by Madiha Nisar of PTI when 11 members were present in the House, on which the Deputy Speaker ordered the bells to be rung for two minutes and the meeting was adjourned till November 14, 2pm.
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